HRD Antwerp Head Says Retail Experience Big Advantage

(IDEX Online) – New HRD Antwerp General Manager, Serge Couvreur, believes his previous 25-year career in the retail industry will serve him well in the new position which he took up in March when he replaced Georges Brys.

A marketing graduate who spent 25 years working in Europe for some of the biggest names in the music and movie industry – including Warner Brothers, a unit of Time Warner, and PolyGram, now part of Universal music Group – Couvreur says it is the fact that he does not come from the diamond industry that helped secure his appointment as HRD Antwerp head.

“I come from Antwerp, and in our city everyone knows someone in the diamond industry,” he told IDEX Online on the sidelines of the Hong Kong Jewellery and Gem Fair at the Asia-World Expo hall which houses the diamond company exhibitors and which closed today (Sunday).

“I admitted to having no particular knowledge of diamonds or to having a network of people in the diamond industry. But I was told that this was an advantage because the organization did not want someone closely related to a specific diamond body or company,” he explained.

“Secondly, HRD Antwerp said it wanted new ideas that have been developed in different business environments and not necessarily from the diamond area.”

He said that it was crucial to understand the consumer, and his experience in the retail industry gives him the ability to do so. “You have to understand the consumer – at all stages of the diamond, from rough production to the consumer. It is vital when you are manufacturing diamonds. The decision about the purchases of diamond jewelry, including the certificate, is consumer driven.

“My great ambition for HRD Antwerp is to get closer to the consumer, mainly through partnerships with retailers. That is the biggest change that I will bring, paying special attention to retailers in every country in which we operate and which I visit. I always want to meet retailers and listen to their needs to see how we can build a closer relationship.

“Our brand name of Antwerp is our Unique Selling Point for retailers, too. They can show their clients that they partner with an Antwerp organization that has a history in the diamond business going back more than 500 years. Quality, heritage and reputation are not invented overnight and they provide us with a great advantage that should be stressed,” he explained.

He said his aim was to place an emphasis on the Indian, Chinese and Antwerp markets. “Let us remembers that Antwerp has an annual diamond turnover of $65 billion, after all.”

In addition, HRD Antwerp will continue to invest in technology and research, for which it is well known, he added.

On the issue of lab-grown diamonds, he said that non-disclosed stones were becoming a growing problem, but commented that HRD Antwerp’s Alpha Diamond Analyzer was able to detect suspicious stones which are immediately dispatched to its research department for further analysis.

Couvreur also announced that HRD Antwerp will soon be launching certificates for lab-grown diamonds. “We are working on the appropriate nomenclature, and it will have a yellow color in line with such certificates from other labs,” he added.